FAERY TALE ADVENTURE 2 : HALLS OF THE DEAD

                  Reviewed by Dave Booth.

Many moons ago there was a Computer, and it was called Amiga.  And
the techies beheld Amiga, and they said it was good.  For it was a
truly pre-emptive multitasking machine, unlike the lowly PC, and
it used advanced 32 bit 65000 colour graphics, unlike the
Macintosh, and it wasn't called Atari, unlike the Atari.

And the software houses did flock to write for Amiga, and so did
many titles emerge and be sold to the masses hungry for Arcade,
Adventure and Role Play.

And so on Amiga there were played multitudinous games.  Among
these titles there was a greatly lot of Tripe, a far smaller
number of Notables, and a handful of Classics.

A Classic was named Dungeon Master.  Few games had the originality
of concept, design and execution that made DM famous.

Here is the story of another Classic, and of its Sequel.

In the early years of the Amiga, circa 1988 if I remember
correctly, a game called Faery Tale Adventure was brought out.
This was one of the first isometric-perspective games.  FTA was an
RPG in which you controlled up to 3 player-characters, who
advanced in skill and ability with experience, and interacted with
NPCs during your journey.  The overall story was a broadly linear
trip through a series of subquests.  One of its innovations was
having a huge gameworld, made possible by the way the Amiga
handled large graphics in memory.

The music was excellent and changed in context. You knew you were
under attack because the music changed pace. Effects like
nightfall were incorporated into the game to add to the ambience.
All on a game now 10 years old.

It's taken that long for the sequel to emerge.

Of course the Amiga has all but died in the interim, and FTA2 has
been written exclusively for the PC.  The Dreamer's Guild, who
designed FTA2, went bust just prior to releasing the game
(probably over-spending their budget by 9 1/2 years). It was left
to Encore Software to release.

FTA2 installs seamlessly on a Win 95 system and is fully 95
native. This means that you can alt-tab from the game to another
application and back again without it falling over or the display
going wonky.

The genesis of FTA2 is in the age-old story of the conflict of
Order and Chaos, incarnated as Sariloth and Thorolis the
demi-gods.  The two have been fighting since time immemorial.  A
previous battle saw Sariloth triumphant, but too weakened by the
effort to impose his order on the universe.

Whilst he recovered, Thorolis undermined him by sowing the seeds
of disorder in all of creation.  Sariloth retaliated by luring
mortals with promises of power.  Even now they are aiding him by
installing the Tapstones, magical artifacts that drain power from
the land itself to feed Sariloth.  Eventually his power should be
sufficient to finally defeat Thorolis.

As Sariloth's plot progresses, so the land and the people are
dying.  Three magical steeds, guardians of the mortal land, sought
to protect the world from him and from the machinations of
Thorolis.  But as the Tapstones drained life from the world, so
their own power failed, until in desperation they sought aid from
another realm.

Enter the three brothers Julian, Philip and Kevin.  The three
heroes from FTA have been brought to Farr on the backs of the
magical steeds.  The salvation of Farr is their errand.

As the brothers materialise in the town of Padavis, they see in
horror that the steeds that transported them have been turned to
stone.  They are alone against Thorolis, Sariloth, and their
minions and creations.  Except that of course, they have you to
guide them.

You have an isometric window on the world, with a sidebar
depicting the three heroes.  Here you set their mood (passive or
ready to fight), hold inventory and ready weapons and armour, and
decide if they band together under a leader or act independently.

The world is depicted in detail.  The graphics are vaguely
cartoonish, but this doesn't demean the plot.  The landscape is
beautifully rendered, both inside and out of town.  As in FTA1,
nighttime is heralded by the dimming of the light, not however to
the extent of making you reach for the Brightness button on your
monitor.

Music is context-dependent.  If a character is attacked or becomes
angry in readiness for combat, the music changes from a pleasant
lilt to a threatening cadence.  Meanwhile the birds continue to
chitter!  Don't they know there's a war on?

Individually-dressed NPCs wander the town and will stop to talk
with you (though all the men have the same vocal chords).
Law-abiding citizens have a trade to ply, and some will give you a
quest to complete.  So far though, none of their quests have been
essential to the main plotline.  They are however a good way to
amass gold, experience, and kudos with the locals.

Movement is cursor based.  To make the team go to a place, you
direct the cursor there and click.  Alternatively, by
double-clicking, the brothers can be made to walk or run over the
landscape.

There are many places in the game where you have to split the team
to achieve an objective. Ofttimes, under attack from relatively
weak opponents, I'd split the party.  Julian would bash away at
the foes, Kevin would stand at a safe distance and either cast
spells or let fly with arrows, whilst Philip would trot around
picking up loose arrows to return to Kevin, and loot the dead
bodies.

The actions of the brothers can be automated or left to your whim.
In combat, sometimes it is a good idea to prevent a PC from
automatically attacking, as he will go on the defensive.  As the
attacker bonks away with their weapon, the PC's Shield skill
rises.  If his foe manages to land one too many strikes, the hero
can then go into attack mode, or a brother be sent in to slice up
the enemy.

(Another fun thing, is to try to talk your way out of a fight!
The responses are worth taking a couple of hits for.)

In the early part of the game though it's advisable to let your
party auto-attack and to band together, as their inexperience
doesn't lend itself to experimentation.  Later though, it's
worthwhile to vary your tactics.  Auto-attacking isn't always
beneficial, as they will go for it even when almost dead.  Better
to run and fight another day.

Initially you will wander around Padavis talking to NPCs, to pick
up the beginnings of what is an intricate story.  Interaction is
controlled by the 'Idea' system.  Once you have an NPCs attention,
clicking on a brother will display a bust of his head with three
coloured stripes.  Selecting the 'Ideas' stripe brings up a batch
of icons, each of which represents a topic you could discuss with
the NPC :  Greetings, Food, Weapons and so on.  Obviously NPCs
react differently to you and in context.  NPC interaction is very
important in building the plot.

This control method also applies to spellcasting, and to examining
the skills development of each brother.  Spells are learned by
reading scrolls dotted around the world, or can be purchased
(albeit at a very high price) from the relevant shops.  Yep, you
go shopping in Farr as well.  Either in town, or out in the
sticks.

So what to do for money?  Well, you kill baddies and loot the
corpses of course.  Or journey around until you find a Dwarven
Mine and raid it.  Or pick apples off the trees and sell them. (!)
Or many other ways...  money starts off scarce, but there's a lot
of booty knocking about in this world.


As you travel around in Farr your heroes will discover caves full
of goodies, and baddies protecting the goodies.  Your booty can
then be sold on to finance training, or to buy food, weapons,
armour, or new spell scrolls.

Some tradesmen seem to like hanging out in piles of rubble,
waiting for enterprising adventurers laden down with loot from a
nearby cavern.  Don't expect a fab deal for your stuff from these
guys though.

Padavis is in the geographical centre of Farr, and the land itself
covers a vast area.  Thankfully your brothers have maps, which
fill in as you travel.  There is an artifact to pick up - very
early in the game I might add - which will give your map
coordinates.  Armed with these, you won't get lost too easily.

Farr is divided into several provinces.  Each has a dominant race
and ruler, and thus a distinct identity, as well as a Tapstone to
dispose of.

Fancy a trip to the Dwarven Kingdom?  Or to the land of the Elves?
All of the stock races from FRPG are present, as well as animals,
undead, and creatures that are just weird - like the Glass Ooze.

Ultimately your travels will lead you to the underground domain of
Sariloth - the Halls of the Dead.  There your party will resolve
the fate of the land.

There are four alternative endings to FTA2, and in this respect it
reminds me of Dungeon Master.  That too had Order and Chaos to
contend with, and similarly your actions directly affected the
ultimate outcome.  Choose wisely!

I'm currently very far away from the endgame, and glad of it.  As
with Daggerfall, I enjoy the freedom to wander around a gameworld,
extracting as much from the game as possible.  With a game as
intricate as FTA2 there's a lot to discover.

Exploration for me is the 'hook' that the designers of FTA2 have
built into the game.  Objects, as well as NPCs, have abilities and
effects which sometimes are not apparent.  There is a cornucopia
of items to pick up along the way and experiment with.  Having a
limited inventory is a pain sometimes, but it means you have to
find out what use things are, which can yield interesting
results.  (Try a Goblin Bomb sometime.  Or two.  But save your
game first!)

That's my lot on FTA2, I'm off to bash some more Oozes about the
place.  And find out how to open that locked gate on level 2 of
the Wizard's Dungeon.  And to discover what use a Lizard in a Jar
could be! Bye....








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